For the farming community in Òlémo Village in Gboro area, Iseyin Local Government area of Oyo State, life is not what it used to be and the agrarian community is under threat of constant invasion by herdsmen. YEJIDE GBENGA-OGUNDARE reports that following the attack on six farm workers on Monday, June 7, 2021, the people are apprehensive and are seeking government’s intervention, to save them from rampaging herdsmen.
For six farm workers and the farm owners in Òlémo Village, Gboro area in Iseyin Local Government Area of Oyo State, Monday, June 7, 2021, was a day they stared death in the face and came out of the encounter alive, even if not whole, as they survived with various degrees of wounds from a deadly encounter with assailants they identified as Fulani herdsmen while on the farm.
The marauders did not only attack them with weapons and attempted to snuff life out of them but also made away with their phones, solar panels chargers, all the foodstuffs on the farm and farm chemicals.
Last week’s experience is not the first one according to the farming community in the local government area as they had been living with constant invasion and destruction of their farms by herdsmen and had lived under the threat of insecurity of lives and properties for a long time.
Speaking on the development, Bamikunle Rasak, a farmer and founder of Baba 70 Foundation, an organisation that deals with farmers welfare in Oke Ogun zone of Oyo State told Nigerian Tribune that while such attacks are not new, the farming community are too traumatised and are tired of playing sitting ducks because they don’t want to take laws in their hands, adding that the constant attacks and invasion of farms have made many to go bankrupt and sick of farming.
The farm workers who were victims of the recent attack included his workers and this is not his first experience with Fulani herdsmen invading his farms. In March, life lost meaning for Bamikunle when he lost his bee farm worth N15 million to herdsmen who invaded his farm, harvested 1,200 beehives and set the farm on fire. Before this, he had been suffering losses on his farm annually as a result of herdsmen invasion and destruction but the loss in the early part of the year was massive and the damage irreparable as he lost his entire source of livelihood.
However, he didn’t suffer the effects alone; as a physically challenged person, he had been using proceeds from his farm to help people living with disabilities in Oke-Ogun, but that has stopped as the source of the finances had been destroyed. His labourers from different parts of the country; Nasarawa, Plateau and Benue, among others, also became jobless and hopeless.
But in order to survive, he moved into planting cheaper crops; cassava and maize farming but this also continues to suffer the same fate. Consequently, when he was informed of the attack on Monday, it was like the last straw for him.
Speaking about his experience, he said, “On Monday last week while I was away on another farm in Alaga village, I heard that some of my brother’s workers, who also work for me had been attacked on the farm by Fulani herdsmen. This is not the first time it’s happening. We continue to lose workers because they cannot confidently go to the farm again; those that are not killed are now running back home because they are usually Igede people from Benue and other tribes.
“Even Yoruba farmers are not safe, we can’t go to our farms without fear of being attacked and often, those Fulani herdsmen invade our farms in our absence, destroy our produce and feed it to their cows before setting fire to the farms. We have been traumatised in our land and hindered from pursuing our source of livelihood, now, our lives are not safe. This is unfair; government should come to our aid. This must not continue,” Bamikunle stated.
Our experience
Narrating his experience, one of the farm workers identified as Awilo said, “What happened was that on Monday, we were resting on the farm when we were attacked by some Fulani men unprovoked. From where I was, I only saw two attacking me with machetes and stick. I had to try everything to defend myself so I won’t be killed. Luckily, I escaped but while I was fleeing, I saw them pursuing my partner who had also escaped towards the maize plantation but I couldn’t help him because I was also wounded and running for dear life,” he said.
The partner was also lucky to escape but cut by matchet wounds and was moved to Kasia community in Alobo village, Iseyin Local government area. And because he couldn’t speak Yoruba or English, the community head, Ibraheem Olatoyan, had to speak on his behalf.
He stated that, “I was in Iseyin when I received a call that Bororo people went to attack some farm workers while they were on the farm; out of the six attacked, three were seriously wounded and couldn’t be treated in the community here, I made arrangements for them to be moved and to get those with manageable injuries to be treated then moved home. We got information on the location of the Bororo people that carried out the dastardly act but we couldn’t get the police or Amotekun operatives to follow us there. Amotekun said they could’nt go without the police because they didn’t want a situation where the story will turn around and they will be arrested.
“What will we do in that case? God will not make us suffer unduly because we have no power, so we have accepted our fate. Government needs to go beyond visiting our communities; the governor came to Odokere here last week but the visit has not helped us. We really need help; this boy’s fingers were cut off and had to be stitched. He can’t work again this year, this one’s ear was stitched because it was almost cut off. The government says we should not take laws into our hands but we are not secure and security agencies are also helpless, this can’t continue, we are tired,” he stated.
Amotekun speaks
The Amotekun commandant in Iseyin Local Government Area, Ogundiran Toyin Akeeke, confirmed the situation, adding that “the situation is exactly like they narrated it to you in the village, I met with the Baale of Alobo, he came to our office to complain about what happened in his domain, that some people went to attack some workers while they were sleeping on the farm. We asked if they knew the settlement of the assailants, they said no. We also asked if they could recognise them but they said no, that they were sleeping when they were attacked.
“So how do we look for people we don’t even know? We said they should report at the police station too. I don’t know if they went to the police station to report or at what point they claim to discover the settlement of the assailants but what I said is that with what is happening in Igangan at present, before we do anything, the police must be there, we won’t enter the forest without the police especially since they can’t recognise the assailants in order to enable us to pick them up and hand them over to the police. Amotekun cannot enter forest alone without the police especially since there is no known location,” he stated.
Unsuccessful peace meeting with Fulani people
To put an end to the travail of farmers, Bamikunle through his Baba 70 Foundation tried to create a platform of mediation between farmers and herdsmen but the efforts continue to fail as the Fulani community refused to work with their leadership and efforts to create an environment conducive for peaceful coexistence so that invasion and destruction of farmland will be eradicated failed.
On the date of the meeting, elders from the Fulani community said they were not informed about any meeting by Alhaji Yaya Jowuro, their head but in a phone conversation, Alhaji Jowuro stated that he gave them the letter and they were aware of the meeting, adding that, he had decided to lie low as he could not intervene again because of the fear of being killed by his people who he said were not ready to cooperate.
Rather, he confirmed that they were alleging that Alhaji Jowuro was the one that went to bring Yoruba people to farm in the Fulani domain in Iseyin. This was refuted by Alhaji Jowuro and Bamikunle, who confirmed he got the 500 acres of land which belong to Iseyin Local Government on lease so that youths and people living with disabilities can get land for farming because unemployed people in his community are suffering.
Bamikunle however pleaded for government intervention, adding that there is no way normalcy can be restored if the government does not consider the plight of farmers, reiterating that the dangers of cattle grazing is devastating on farmers. He added that, “I had to beg the people to allow peace reign and not take laws into their hands because they are tired and the leader of Fulani people have refused to talk to his members who are not ready to toe the path of peace like him for fear of getting killed. We need government intervention in this area in terms of security and in Alaga too.”
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